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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29062542">chlorine fumes</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kishere/pseuds/kishere'>kishere</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, Pre-Friendship, bisexual!Dan Howell, mentions of bullying</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:22:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,542</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29062542</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kishere/pseuds/kishere</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>underwater, the world turns quiet</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Phandomreversebang face the music</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>chlorine fumes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I wrote this for the Phandom Reverse Bang: Face the Music Edition. It was inspired by <a href="https://youtu.be/ckXxPUvP5Ug">candles</a> by Jon Hopkins.</p><p>Shout out to <a href="https://schnaphan.tumblr.com/">schnaf</a> for the absolutely gorgeous artwork that accompanies this. Like I wish my writing was worthy. </p><p>Thank you profusely to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsmyusualday/pseuds/itsmyusualphannie">itsmyusualphannie</a> for betaing. I owe tara my life :pleadingface:</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><br/><br/>Dan liked the quiet of the pool at four am. </p><p>He liked the way his footfalls echoed in the empty pool area, how the smell of chlorine filled his nose, the dim lighting of the underwater lights. He liked how the only sound was the sound of his arms sluicing through the water as he swam, even if sometimes he wished there were some sort of waterproof, wireless headphones on the days he felt too much. </p><p>The act of swimming was calming in a way that home (well, their current house, not really a <em> home</em>) wasn’t anymore. Granted, he probably wasn’t supposed to be using the school pool that early but it was: a) the only pool he had access to and b) the only time slot before the swim team supposedly came in. His new school, the fourth in five years, really needed to invest in a better security system for the school grounds if Dan could pick the lock with one of his mom’s bobby pins for the fifth time in three weeks. Too bad he was probably leaving soon (no matter how much his mom promised this one was permanent, because she had said that about Wokingham too, two months ago) and couldn’t just make friends with someone with a pool.</p><p>The bright side of constantly moving, he thought as he took a break, stretching out to float on his back, was that usually by the time the bullying started up at school, he would be on to the next one. The one other constant, beyond the bullying and the moving, was the swimming. Sometimes he would get lucky and be able to sign up to be on the swim team, give himself the pretense of friends for a while before they just looked at him one day, and suddenly it wasn’t fine to change in front of him or invite him to hang anymore. Was there something innate about him that just screamed queer? Was there some arrow that pointed down on him that he couldn’t see that said “likes boys and girls”?  </p><p>He was probably overthinking it when he needed to push himself to go faster, tire himself out so his brain would just <em> slow </em> down for the first time in days. Maybe he needed to work on his butterfly stroke; that usually tired him out. He was debating his next move when he heard an out-of-place sound that wasn’t his own breathing. It sounded like a door opening, but so far, no one else had ever come in this early, he thought as he looked at the large digital clock that hung on the wall. He let his body go heavy, quietly trying to sink into the water and hope whatever that sound was wasn’t someone who could get him kicked out of school. He opened his eyes briefly underwater as he heard a distorted sound. Someone yelling? Maybe? Whatever the sound was, it didn’t last long before there was a splashing sound as someone else joined him in the pool. </p><p>Dan opened his eyes and had to close them again with how chlorinated the pool was but he caught a glimpse of someone with black hair heading towards him. He let out a big breath and swam for the surface, unsure of what else he was supposed to do. He used his legs to tread water and pushed his hair back from his eyes after he broke through the surface. Maybe his mom had a point about the haircut he has been putting off. He didn’t wait long to see who his intruder was and wanted to sink down in the water again when he saw who it was. </p><p>Oh, no.</p><p>Oh no, he had to leave <em> now </em>. </p><p>He looked over Phil Lester’s (swim captain, Head Boy, all-around nice guy) pale, freckled shoulder and tried to gauge if he could out-swim him and make it to his clothes before Phil noticed. The other blinked as he stared at Dan.</p><p>“Daniel...no Dan, right?”</p><p>Oh my god, he remembered me, Dan thought, feeling his cheeks start to heat up. He nodded dumbly and didn’t speak. He started to scoot back, feeling like if he was against the wall of the pool, he could pull himself out and leave before he got in trouble.</p><p>“What are you doing here so early? I wish the swimmers on the team were this dedicated,” Phil said, pushing his own hair back. Dan wondered if it would be soft or coarse, mistreated from too much time spent in chlorine. Phil hadn’t even jumped in with a swim cap on. How often did Phil do that? </p><p>It was too quiet. </p><p>“Oh, um,” Dan stuttered out, unsure of what to say to get him out of trouble or, at the very least, fill the silence. “I uh...was just in the neighborhood?” Well, that sounded like a very obvious lie, Dan thought with a wince.</p><p>“I, um, didn’t realize it was so late,” Dan continued, looking back over at the clock on the wall. It was actually nearly an hour before Dan would normally leave, but he needed to escape this situation <em> immediately </em>. Just because Phil didn’t seem upset doesn’t mean he wouldn’t get in trouble. Maybe if he just acted casual about this? “I um. Better head out.”</p><p>“Oh...are you sure?” Phil asked, and that wasn’t exactly the answer Dan was expecting. Dan was expecting Phil to say (in his typical nice person fashion) that he couldn’t allow Dan to leave, that Dan had to wait here for the headmaster, and that Dan would be expelled. Was trespassing an expellable offense? Maybe Dan could talk them down to a suspension? Mum would still be pissed, but not <em> as </em> pissed. </p><p>“Yeah,” Dan said, licking at his bottom lip, squinting his eyes in thought at the chlorine that stuck there. Someone (not Dan, obviously) really ought to talk to someone about how much chlorine they were dumping in here. “Homework, you know?”<br/><br/>Phil nodded. “Reasonable.” <br/><br/>“Quite.” </p><p>Phil hummed in response. </p><p>“So, I’m just going to go. I. Um. Have some homework I have to do.”</p><p>“That’s what you said,” Phil said, a sly smile playing at the edge of his mouth. Was he laughing at Dan? “You sure I can’t convince you to stay for a while?”<br/><br/>Dan blinked. “W...why?” <br/><br/>“Because I’m already here and the company would be nice. Pool gets too quiet this early and it spooks me,” Phil said, looking off to the side, rubbing the side of his neck. <br/><br/>“I think it’s nice,” Dan said. “The quiet.”</p><p>“Oh?” </p><p>“Yeah, it really lets you connect with the water.”</p><p>“Are you saying you can’t connect with it when there are other people here? At a normal time of the morning?”</p><p>This was such a bizarre conversation. But Dan wasn’t getting in trouble so he saw no harm in continuing it. Besides, it was fucking frigid outside and the building where the pool was housed was lukewarm.<br/><br/>“I mean, I can. But there is something about it when there is no one else here that lets me...I don’t know,” Dan finished lamely. </p><p>“Connect with the water?” Phil offered and Dan nodded, grateful that Phil was filling the silence. </p><p>“Exactly.”<br/><br/>“I think I get it,” Phil said slowly, like he was testing the words on his tongue. “Like, I’m usually here early and there’s something almost peaceful about the pool before anyone gets in it.”</p><p>“Yeah, exactly. I’m sure Mrs. Rosen would find some kind of a metaphor about human nature or some shite,” Dan said, pleased when Phil tilted his head back and started laughing. He looked quickly at the pale line of Phil’s throat, noticing it didn’t have freckles like his shoulders seemed to. His throat felt dry. He averted his gaze; he didn’t need Phil realizing he was bent and then getting upset and telling the headmaster he had done something untoward alongside trespassing. While schools couldn’t technically punish him for being queer, they could make it unpleasant. </p><p>(Teachers looking the other way, not believing him when he told them about the bullying, school after school after school-)</p><p>“I better go, leave you to your peace and all,” Dan said, turning and pulling himself out of the pool with a splash. He stood dripping on the pool deck and crossed his arms over his nipples, trying to keep them warm. Or maybe try to feel less exposed than he did under Phil’s gaze.</p><p>Phil swam closer to the edge and looked up at Dan, meeting his eyes. They looked almost neon in the dim light that the pool threw off, highlighted by the blue water. “You sure I can’t convince you to stay?”<br/><br/>Phil probably could; it wouldn’t be hard. “Yeah, I’m sure.” <br/><br/>“Good luck with your homework then,” Phil said, still staring up at him. </p><p>“Thanks,” Dan said as he broke the gaze and went to go collect his things. When he looked up after he finished getting dressed, Phil was still watching him from across the pool. </p><p>Dan turned and hurried out of the pool house building before Phil changed his mind and turned him in, his heart racing for a different reason than the running. </p>
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